Julien Sebbag is amused to have become a personality in Paris, the question "Who is Julien Sebbag?"
even entering a humorous list of things never to ask a Parisian.
He has just released a book, "Self-taught", to tell his story, his "almost visceral relationship to music" and give 40 recipes.
He also tastes his dishes in videos on Instagram, an exercise certainly practiced by other chefs, but in which he personally invests a lot of time.
Eight hours of work for one minute of well-edited images, so that digital communication is "coherent" with "business development".
"If a chef with several restaurants only has 10,000 followers on Instagram, there is a bug," he says.
- "Feeding the moment" -
An admirer of the Anglo-Israeli chef Yotam Ottolenghi, author of culinary bestsellers, Julien Sebbag makes Mediterranean cuisine "very suitable for an excellent diet": no fried foods, no melted fatty cheeses, little butter, lots of vegetables. it marries and seasons in unexpected and easy to reproduce ways.
After the closure of his ephemeral terrace, Créatures, on the roof of Galeries Lafayette, in the heart of Paris, he has just opened Micho, a "street food" restaurant with challah, the traditional Shabbat bread garnished with "real elaborate recipes, such as meat stew and fermented coleslaw".
A graduate of a business school, he first did internships in the world of contemporary art which fascinates him.
But needing to "feed on the moment", he switched to the kitchen.
During his travels to London he discovered street food, almost non-existent in Paris at the time, and decided to explore "this Eldorado".
"When I was a student, I went to Tel Aviv, I worked in restaurants, I did all the jobs in the kitchen," he says.
Lively and relaxed, the places - including "Forest" at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris - just like the plates, correspond to the personality of the chef who does yoga in the morning and five crossfit classes a week.
"New Phenomenon"
A former high-level saber fencer, Manon Fleury officiates at Perchoir Ménilmontant, an ephemeral restaurant with a view of the Sacré Coeur.
She ensures the balance of her eco-responsible dishes.
One autumn morning, she harvests vegetables in the Paris region with the starred British chef Merlin Labron-Johnson, with whom she will cook in the evening by merging their worlds.
Ephemeral restaurants, four-handed meals that create new experiences: "it's a completely new phenomenon which perhaps indicates a new way of practicing gastronomy", estimates Nicolas Chatenier, delegate-general of the Grandes Tables du Monde.
Raw turnips or pithiviers of venison with pumpkin, last tomatoes in several textures, all accompanied by broths of peels, vegetable juices and fermented drinks prepared by his sommelier... "Before, the chefs dictated to the producers what they had to put on the menu, I try to reverse this trend and cook the products available at the time T", explains Manon Fleury.
After doing literary preparatory classes, she reoriented herself towards cooking training and refined her culinary art with popular French chefs such as William Ledeuil or Alexandre Couillon.
It was while working in New York with chef Dan Barber that she focused on cereals, "an under-exploited subject in France" to which she devoted a book released in the fall.
"Half of the cereals are gluten-free and provide vegetable protein. I was a high-level athlete for several years. I try to cook food that is good for your health," she concludes.
© 2022 AFP